Unclaimed baggage is piling up at Schiphol airport, reports the NOS.

The broadcaster, citing five anonymous sources in baggage handling, claims that ‘around 16,000 suitcases’ have been left at the airport, following weeks of travel chaos.

‘There are so many that some piles of suitcases are even outside,’ one told the broadcaster. Another reportedly said that the problems with baggage had not been so large for years.

The sources shared images of rooms full of pushchairs, lines of covered luggage trucks outside and everything from cases to guitars waiting to be claimed.

Hendrik Noorderhaven, a spokesman for EU-Claim private claim firm told NOS that it was chaos. ‘There are thousands of claims,’ he reportedly said. ‘We have never seen anything like it.’

Non-contact centre

On KLM’s website, the company has put a message about missing baggage. ‘Worldwide, various airports are dealing with operational issues,’ it said. ‘This may affect the delivery of your delayed baggage. The KLM contact centre cannot give you any further information currently, so please do not contact us. You will find all updates in the tracing system.’

It added that it can take ‘a few days’ for luggage status to be updated in the system, and apologised to customers for the ‘inconvenience’.

Schiphol recently announced it is slashing passenger numbers and flights for the summer to deal with the issues, partially caused by a shortage of security staff and baggage handlers.

Despite long queues, it has told customers not to come more than four hours early and not to take too much hand baggage.